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Now Microsoft has also reduced the price of Xbox by whopping $100…..!!!

The company said in a statement that the price cuts for the Xbox 360 Elite model, which comes with a 120-gigabyte hard drive, will take effect in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore and Taiwan starting Sept. 10.

The price of the Elite model in Hong Kong will be cut by 28.2% to HK$2,369, while its price in South Koreawill be 14.1% lower at KRW419,000. The price in Singapore will be cut by 26.5% to S$499, while Taiwan will see a 25.9% price reduction to NT$10,360.

The announcement follows Microsoft’s price cuts for the high-end Xbox 360 Elite model and the mid-range Pro model in the U.S. announced Thursday. The price for the Elite there will be cut by $100 to $299.99. The Pro, which comes with a smaller hard drive, will sell for $50 less at $249.99 and will be phased out once the current supplies run out. The cuts take effect Friday.

The price cuts come just days after high-definition game console rival Sony Corp. (SNE) said it would cut the price of its PlayStation 3 console by $100 to $299 as that console has struggled against lower-priced competitors. A slimmer version of the gaming console will debut on Sept. 1.

Bowman said during the interview that the price cut had been planned for some time “as part of economics” the company is seeing in the videogames business.

Microsoft also announced that Facebook and Twitter services will be available to paying Xbox Live subscribers later this year.

With rival Microsoft’s Xbox outselling the Playstation 3, Sony has unveiled the overhauled Playstation 3. Dubbed the PS3 Slim, the unit features a revised cell processor, 120GB hard drive and is smaller, lighter and cheaper than its predecessor.

Sony have put up several changes in a bid to close the gap and return to their glory days as leader in the gaming console domain.

The new console is around a third smaller and lighter, and is also quieter – thanks largely to a Cell processor using the 45 nanometer manufacturing process (as opposed to the previous 65nm Cell). The smaller Cell is said to generate around 15% less fan noise, and is cooler, with around 30% less energy consumption.

The PS3 Slim’s integrated 120GB storage capacity virtually ensures relevance for years to come even if downloadable high definition content becomes available. The console continues to feature Wi-Fi connectivity as well as a Blu-ray player, with Bravia television owners sure to appreciate the Bravia Sync feature, whereby their existing remotes can be used to navigate the system in place of the expensive and awkward PS3 Blu-ray version. An additional system “standby function” will shut down the PS3 Slim when the Bravia TV is switched off.

While removing the option to install an alternative operating system like Linux may disappoint some, Sony looks to be focusing on increasing the PS3’s accessibility to the wider population of gamers. With a reported Wii-esque motion sensitive wand in the works, the emphasis looks to be on appealing to the casual gamer as well as the fanatic.

Sony have simplified the branding, doing away with the Spiderman-type logo of the Playstation 3, opting instead to emboss a simple “PS3” on the console front. The casing has also reverted from glossy to the more traditional black matte finish.

Lower production costs have seen the price for the PS3 Slim, on sale September 1st, reduced to US$299. With this lower price point potentially making the unit a viable option to those previously deterred by higher cost, and with Micrsoft’s Xbox expected to make a similar move, will it be “game on” once more?

Check out the Playstation website for a closer look.

With rival Microsoft’s Xbox outselling the Playstation 3, Sony has unveiled the overhauled Playstation 3. Dubbed the PS3 Slim, the unit features a revised cell processor, 120GB hard drive and is smaller, lighter and cheaper than its predecessor.

Sony have put up several changes in a bid to close the gap and return to their glory days as leader in the gaming console domain.

The new console is around a third smaller and lighter, and is also quieter – thanks largely to a Cell processor using the 45 nanometer manufacturing process (as opposed to the previous 65nm Cell). The smaller Cell is said to generate around 15% less fan noise, and is cooler, with around 30% less energy consumption.

The PS3 Slim’s integrated 120GB storage capacity virtually ensures relevance for years to come even if downloadable high definition content becomes available. The console continues to feature Wi-Fi connectivity as well as a Blu-ray player, with Bravia television owners sure to appreciate the Bravia Sync feature, whereby their existing remotes can be used to navigate the system in place of the expensive and awkward PS3 Blu-ray version. An additional system “standby function” will shut down the PS3 Slim when the Bravia TV is switched off.

Sony have simplified the branding, doing away with the Spiderman-type logo of the Playstation 3, opting instead to emboss a simple “PS3” on the console front. The casing has also reverted from glossy to the more traditional black matte finish.

Lower production costs have seen the price for the PS3 Slim, on sale September 1st, reduced to US$299. With this lower price point potentially making the unit a viable option to those previously deterred by higher cost, and with Micrsoft’s Xbox expected to make a similar move, will it be “game on” once more?

Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, have made a new kind of solar cell by growing an array of upright nanoscale pillars on aluminum foil. They make bendable solar cells by encapsulating the entire cell inside a transparent, rubbery polymer. The design, the researchers suggest, could lead to solar cells that cost less than conventional silicon photovoltaics.

The nanopillars allow the researchers to use cheaper, lower-quality materials than those used in conventional silicon and thin-film technologies.

So the cost would decrease 10 folds when it will be made on a big scale.

The solar cells are made of uniform 500-nanometer-high pillars of cadmium sulfide embedded in a thin film of cadmium telluride. Both materials are semiconductors used in thin-film solar cells.

In an online Nature Materials paper, it was shown that the cells have an efficiency of about 6 percent in transforming sunlight into electricity as compared to other nano pillars grown with expensive materials which have an efficiency of 2%.

In conventional cells, silicon absorbs light and creates free electrons, which need to get to the electrical circuit before they get trapped at defects or impurities in the material. This requires extremely pure, expensive crystalline silicon to achieve the most efficient photovoltaic devices.

The nanopillar design splits up silicon’s duties: the material surrounding the pillars absorbs light and creates electrons, and the pillars transport them to the electrical circuit. This increases efficiency in two ways. The closely packed pillars trap light between them, helping the surrounding material absorb more. The electrons also have a very short distance to travel through the pillars, so there are fewer chances of their getting trapped at defects. That means you can use low-quality, less expensive materials.

The researchers also intend to try other semiconductor materials for the pillars and surrounding material. The fabrication process is compatible with a wide range of semiconductors, and other combinations could increase the efficiency.

Cost: Initially between $100 and $200; cartridges will cost between $1 and $3.

Company: Lilliputian Systems

Solid-oxide fuel cells can generate electricity using a range of readily available fuels. But because they run very hot–often above 1,000 ºC–they typically require insulation that makes them bulky. A new version employs an insulation technique that keeps the finished device as small as a pack of playing cards. The gadget, which could help keep electronic devices humming on long flights or hikes, runs on cheap butane cartridges; one cartridge packs enough power to recharge a smart phone 20 times. Swap out the cartridge, and it’s ready for 20 more charges. The device is scheduled to go on sale next year.

Light-emitting diodes (LEDs) are highly efficient, but they can’t directly produce white light. Though a blue LED can be coated with a phosphor that alters some wavelengths to yield a whitish mix, the resulting light has a bluish cast, and some energy is wasted as heat in the process. A new LED lamp avoids this problem by using an optic coated with quantum dots–bits of semiconductor material a few nanometers in diameter. When excited by a light source, the dots radiate light in wavelengths that vary according to their sizes. The optic–coated with dots in specific sizes and ratios–appears orange when the light is off (left) but radiates white light when the underlying blue LED is on (right). The result: LED lamps that are 50 percent more efficient and produce better-quality white light.

Because the Nexxus Lighting Array lamps with Quantum Light™ are compatible with a standard, screw-in Edison base, they can easily replace incandescent and halogen lamps in existing downlight fixtures. Just in the US, the DoE estimates, the number of down lights and track heads with Edison base lamp installations equal over 139 million in commercial applications and over 262 million in residential lighting applications. Both companies expect that commercial availability of their high efficiency lamps with high color quality will overcome a major barrier to LEDs and will accelerate the penetration of LEDs in the $4 billion U.S. lamp market. The potential impact on the environment could be significant, a full conversion to LEDs of existing downlights and trackheads in the US (approximately 10% of US fixtures) represents an annual savings of more than 35 billion KW hours (nearly $4 billion), which is the equivalent of nearly 6 power plants or more than 60 million barrels of oil per year.

A research team from the University of Waterloo has synthesized a prototype of a lithium-sulphur rechargeable battery that, thanks to its peculiar nanoscale structure, can store three times the power of a conventional lithium-ion battery in the same volume while being significantly lighter and potentially cheaper to manufacture.

When it comes to reducing our carbon footprint, a clean, long-lasting rechargeable battery could have enormous benefits in a wide range of applications, from efficient energy storage to clean transportation.

Pros and Cons of lithium-sulfur cells

Pros

•Delivers much higher energy densities while reducing the cost of the materials used:

•The composite material synthesized by Nazar’s team can supply as much as 84 percent of the theoretical capacity of sulphur – three times the energy density of lithium transition cathodes. This should account for significantly more efficient batteries which will be lighter as well.

•The basic raw materials for the positive electrode (sulfur and carbon) are very inexpensive.

Cons

•In terms of safety, because lithium-sulfur batteries typically employ a negative electrode comprised of metallic lithium, there could be safety concerns if the electrode is not adequately protected by a passivating layer. However, the research team seems optimistic that this won’t be impossible to overcome.

•The costs associated with processing, electrolyte, fabrication, etc could be high, still that is highly dependent on the optimization of the materials and the battery configuration.

•Capacity fading can be more of an issue, along with lower volumetric energy and those need to be tackled more fully.

Dyson Energy Bracelet is a gadget that uses Seebeck effect to harness energy and power your mobile phones for a few precious minutes more, when you desperately need it. Lemme explain a bit: The thermoelectric effect is the direct conversion of temperature differences to electric voltage and vice versa. This typically includes three separately identified effects, the Seebeck effect, the Peltier effect, and the Thomson effect. This is coz three different guys discovered it around the same time, however Peltier–Seebeck and Thomson effects are reversible and Joule heating is not.

The designers explain:

Thanks to the Seebeck effect, the temperature difference between the surface which touch the skin and the other which is in the ambient air allows to produce electricity that is stocked in a battery. When the user needs to recharge a mobile device, he plugs it into the Dyson Energy through a micro-USB port (universal connector imposed to constructors in 2012) and can have some additional minutes in use.

Firstly, we have tested the Peltier element in its most common use: i.e. the creation of heat and coldness on the same component (Seebeck effect), and we have noticed that there was electricity production. We have met an engineer who allowed us to evolve on our project while explaining us that there was not possible to plug the elements serially. Therefore, we chose to work with only one element. As a result of many calculations, we have validated this technology payoff regarding our concept. For instance, some hours are sufficient to power its cellphone for a dozen minutes of communication.